As we celebrate Thanksgiving and prepare for the Christmas season, it’s a great opportunity to take the time to look back at the origin of Thanksgiving and the true reason we celebrate. Many times, we rush through each season and don’t take the time to enjoy ourselves or understand why we are celebrating each holiday.
The Pilgrims left their homeland in 1620 in hopes of making better lives for themselves and their children while being able to worship freely and live in peace. The journey they took before setting sail, as well as the 66 days at sea, was amazing. The day before they left, the Pilgrims and the entire town spent the day lifting their eyes to heaven in worship and pouring out prayers to the Lord with great fervency. Their perseverance for their religious freedom laid the foundation for America. Their courage and thanksgiving to God are inspiring and something we should strive for each day versus only once a year on this national American holiday in November.
The early settlers and our Founding Fathers knew how to give thanks and praise to the Lord. They all believed in Christ’s teachings and wanted to be able to freely worship and praise God for all His blessings. They knew how to thank and praise God for their safe travels, abundant harvest, and freedom.
How many of us grew up reciting Psalm 100, especially verse 4? Do we really know what it means?
“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.” (Psalm 100:4)
This verse is a command to approach God with thanksgiving and praise. We are to bless His holy name for all the good things He has done and will continue to do. Most of us come to God first with our problems and a list of requests. Sometimes we even plead and beg God when we feel we are in hopeless situations. But that is not what God is saying in Psalm 100 or what Jesus taught as “The Lord’s Prayer” (Matthew 6:9-13). Jesus instructed believers to enter into His gates and courts with thanksgiving and praise by saying, “Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be they name.” We are to come to Him because we have a relationship with Him; come to Him like a child would come to a parent who they know has showered them with gifts and blessings.
Jesus provides a place in the middle of the prayer to ask God for what we need, but it shouldn’t be the first thing we do when approaching God. It also shouldn’t be the main reason we seek Him. We should seek Him and come to Him because we love Him and want to show Him by thanking Him for His goodness and mercy. Jesus ends this prayer with praise and thanksgiving again by saying, “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”
Jesus teaches believers to begin and end our prayers with thanksgiving. If we learn to thank God by magnifying Him before we jump into all of our problems, it will highlight how big our God is and how small our problems are. We need to magnify God instead of magnifying our problems.
If you look at the moon through binoculars with the correct lens, the moon appears to draw closer to you and is magnified. However, if you look through the opposite side of those binoculars (the smaller lens), the moon will appear even smaller and further away. Use the smaller lens when viewing your problems and the bigger lens to see your God. When you do this, your faith will increase, and it will be more than enough to overcome the problem or situation you may be facing.
Today and every day, go to God with a thankful heart.
~Donna Jones